Portland Trail Blazers: Turning into the 2004 Detroit Pistons
Chris Phillips
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What Does This Mean
To quote the great Judge Smails, “Weeeeeell. We’re waiting.” While this is a cool comparison, what does it all mean? To be honest, I’m not sure what it means exactly. However, I do know that it would not shock me if the Portland Trail Blazers made a move, either in free agency with their vast cap space or trade to acquire their own Rasheed Wallace type. Two players that come to mind that could fit this mold are pending free agent Chris Boucher. And Atlanta’s starting power forward John Collins.
How about this for another comparison. Rasheed Wallace was initially traded from Portland to Atlanta, then soon after traded to Detroit. What if Cronin makes a trade to acquire malcontent, Collins. Collins’ game had vastly changed compared to what scouts thought when coming out of college. Collins would be the best comparison to Wallace and a great fit for the Portland Trail Blazers between the two guys mentioned.
John Collins thru 50 games:
2020/21 2021/22
PPG: 17.7 PPG: 16.8
REB: 7.6 REB: 7.9
FT% 83% FT% 79.4%
FG% 54.7% FG% 53.7%
3PT% 37.7% 3PT% 38.8%
FGA: 13 FGA: 12.1 pic.twitter.com/md4Tkjki7z— The Official Atlanta Hawks Sports Network (@AtlantaHawksSN) February 17, 2022
Even if the Blazers get their Wallace-type player, I can’t say that they’ll pull off a 2004 Detroit Pistons type of season. But what I can say is I want to see the Blazers continue building this roster in comparison to that Detroit team. For me, it’ll be a lot of fun to watch that team play on a nightly basis. I’m not a fan of the isolation style of play that is pretty prominent in the NBA. I love the team-ball and ball movement of teams like San Antonio, Golden State, and the Detroit team mentioned previously.
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What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
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